


Looking For Her Home

by flipflop_diva



Series: The Ties That Bind [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, F/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, Mission Fic, Missions Gone Wrong, POV Natasha Romanov, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Protective Steve, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-23 19:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13794615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: Natasha was thirty years old the first time she knew what having a family really felt like.Part 3 of 3





	Looking For Her Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raving_liberal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/gifts).



Natasha was thirty years old the first time she knew what having a family really felt like.

She’d been living in Avengers Tower with the rest of the team for two months. She still wasn’t completely sure it was the best decision, but there was a certain kind of comfort about it she hadn’t expected. She was used to doing everything on her own, not walking into a kitchen to find Steve making her breakfast or trying to read up on the news while Tony and Bruce argued right next to her on the best way to do whatever it was they were trying to do that day.

It was Steve who had convinced her to move in. After SHIELD fell, she’d taken off on her own, but she had missed them, which both surprised and unnerved her a little. But then Steve had called, told her everyone else had agreed.

“Come on,” he had said, and she could have sworn she heard a smirk in his voice over the phone. “It’ll be fun.”

She wasn’t sure if fun was the word she would use on a regular basis, but it did have a lot of benefits, like all of them being together when duty called. They’d been on a lot more missions recently, trying to round up the last of the Hydra cells wherever they popped up.

This new one was in the south of Mexico. 

“In and out,” Tony had said, showing them the satellite images earlier that afternoon. “Just a few guys. Should be simple.”

“That’s what you always say right before things go horribly wrong,” Clint said.

Tony frowned. “Shut up, Barton. Who asked you anyway?”

So far, though, Tony was being proven right. After taking out the two guards by the entrance, Natasha, Steve and Clint had yet to see anyone else. Tony and Thor, on patrol outside, and Bruce back in the Quinjet also reported no action.

Natasha, Steve and Clint crept down the hallway inside the bunker until they reached the end. Two doors led to two more halls, heading off in differing directions.

“I’ll take left, you boys go right,” Natasha said.

For a second, Steve’s eyes narrowed, and she knew what was coming.

“I’ll be fine, Steve,” she said, and she headed left before he could stop her.

She found the bunker’s mainframe in the third room she checked.

She raised her wrist to her mouth. “Got it,” she said to Tony, clicking on her comm. She pulled a flash drive from her pocket and got to work.

She was almost done when the explosions started.

For a moment, she couldn’t tell where they had come from — above ground, under ground, close to her, far away — until a second one went off right outside the door. Natasha threw herself to the ground as a wave of intense heat surrounded her.

Another explosion sounded — and this one was only inches from her.

Natasha scrambled to her feet, eyes stinging from the smoke, throat burning. She took off at a run, but she only made it a few feet before she crashed into something hard. The impact had her falling backward, her head striking the edge of a table as she went down.

For a second, she lay stunned on the ground, her head throbbing, her vision swimming. And then there was shadow standing over her.

She tried to move, to scramble out of reach, but it was too late. Hands were gripping her wrists, cuffing them in something solid. 

And then a sharp prick in the side of her neck and she felt her entire body go lax, her vision fading out again. The last thing she knew was a heavy weight on top of her, pressing her into the floor.

•••

“Nat. Natasha. Open your eyes.”

Her eyelids fluttered open. She was outside on the ground. Steve’s head was above her, his fingers stroking her cheek. It was he who was talking to her. 

She tried to move her head, groaned at the pain.

“Hey, don’t move.” Tony’s voice, somewhere out of her range of sight.

“What happened?” she managed.

“Some Hydra prick thought it was his lucky day,” Tony answered. “Until Clint put an arrow threw his head for trying to touch you.”

“Did he …?” she started.

“No,” Steve said instantly.

“Nah,” said Tony. “We weren’t going to let him touch our girl.”

Normally, Natasha would have scowled at anyone calling her that. Instead she put her hand to her aching head. She remembered the explosions, something heavy on top of her, the flash drive still in the computer …

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Whatever for?” Bruce, somewhere off to her left.

“I messed up,” she said. “I could have gotten you all killed. You should have …”

“Don’t even say we should have left you, Nat,” Clint said. “You’re family. And you would have done the same for us.”

Natasha wanted to answer, but she wasn’t sure what to say. It didn’t seem to matter anyway as Steve lifted her into his arms and carried her back to the Quinjet.

•••

They all spent the evening together in one of the Tower’s common rooms, curled up on the couches watching movies. She was on one of the sofas between Clint and Steve, Steve’s arm wrapped around her shoulders.

He hadn’t let her out of his sight since they got back, like he was worried she really wasn’t okay.

She was fine, though. At least physically. But her mind kept going back to Clint’s words as she lay there on the ground surrounded by all of them.

“Hey,” Steve whispered into her ear, somewhere during the third movie. They were the only two still awake, although her eyelids felt extremely heavy. “Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine, Steve,” she said. She looked over at him. The hand not wrapped around her was on his lap. She reached out, slid her fingers between his.

Steve’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I’ve never had a family before,” Natasha found herself saying. She wasn’t sure why she wanted him to know.

But Steve just squeezed her hand. “You do now,” he told her, and then he smiled when she yawned. “Just go to sleep, Nat. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

“I know you will,” she said, and she leaned her head against his shoulder and let herself drift off, the weight of his arm a steady comfort around her.

**Author's Note:**

> 


End file.
